STARS MEETING 2010 : Navigation Through The Stars




Alexandria, 24 March – Hosted at the prestigious Alexandria Hilton Green Plaza, Alexandria Oral Implantology Association (AOIA) had successfully organized the 8th international implantology congress. It is one of the largest scientific events that attract thousands of doctors, professionals, exhibitors as well as visitors all around the world.





Together with the International Congress of Oral Implantologists (ICOI), Stars Meeting 2010 gave a slight touch of uniqueness, gathering stars and legend from the field of implantology to share the state of art of implantology along with the new technologies and techniques in this field. Among them are the most notable public figure in this field, also considered as the world leader in implant dentistry; Dr. Henry Salama, the developer of the Screw-Vent, Advent and SwissPlus implants now sold by Zimmer Dental and the founder of Core-Vent and Paragon Dental Implant Companies; Dr Gerald A. Niznick, Fellow of the International College of Dentists and a Clinical Associate, ENT Department, Orthodontics and Maxillo-Facial Orthopedics, American University of Beirut; Dr. Nadim Aboujaoude, Director of Riyadh Dental Center in Riyadh Medical Complex, Consultant of Prosthodontics & Implant at Riyadh Dental Center; Dr. Abdullah Saleh Al-Keraidis and ICOI cofounder and co-chairman; Dr. Kenneth Judy.

Other distinguished speakers are as followed:

1. Prof. Nabil Barakat; the president of the Lebanese Association of Osseointegration and the president of the East Mediterranean Association of Osseointegration.

2. Dr. Mohamed Hassan; Diplomat of the American Board of Periodontology and Fellow of International College of Dentists (FICD).

3. Prof. Dr. Ates Parlar; member of ITI Training and Education Committee and the founder of the ITI Turkish Section and the first chairman of it until June 2007.

4. Prof. Jean Marie Megarbane; a visiting Professor in Periodontology at the University of Florida, USA (1974-1978), Professor and Chairman of the Department of Periodontology at the Lebanese University Beirut, Lebanon (1981-1993).

5. Dr. Hussin Garrana; Associate Professor, Department of Restorative Dentistry, Alexandria University, Consultant in Prosthodontics, RDC, KSA
B.D.S, M.S., M.D.S. in Prosthodontics Univ. of Pittsburgh (USA), Ph.D.

6. Dr. Nik Sisodia; the Country Chairman (UK) for the European Society of Cosmetic Dentistry, Fellow of the International Congress of Oral Implantology and the Vice President of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry.

7. Dr. Khalil I. Al-Ali; Consultant in implant and prosthodontics, Department of Prosthetic Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud University.

8. Dr. Kareem El-Faham; Member of European College of Orthodontists, Msc Orthodontics, University of Paul Sabatier-Toulouse III, France.

Granted with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, four Malaysian dentist undergraduates from Mansoura University decided to participate in the event, hoping to gain new knowledge and experiences.




Dr. Henry Salama started off the conference by delivering a well-defined, rousing presentation. Giving the analogy “When you have a hammer in your hand, you started to see everything as a nail”, Dr. Henry Salama stated the importance of dentist having more than one treatment plan rather than only one treatment plan which doesn’t give a choice for the patient to choose from. Any dentists having only one solution in their mind are not capable of delivering a good quality treatment to their patient.

The conference which started at 24th of March ended 2 days later with all of the participants walking out satisfied and motivated despite having a long 8 hours lecture for 3 consecutive days. Congratulations to the organizing committees and speakers for the wonderful event!

At the same time, we were pleasantly surprised to meet Malaysian dentists during the conference who are currently working in the University of Sharjah, UAE as Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, Prof. AB Rani Samsudin alongside his wife, Dr. Nizam bt Abdullah, a Public Health lecturer in the same university.




A piece of advice from Prof. AB Rani Samsudin;

“Reading is a continuous process of learning and being an excellent dentist is all about reading and hardworking. Without both of it, you are just like an electrician who only knows how to make the lamp works out without knowing what makes it lights up.”